Nights Out, Lights Out
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Unwinding after the NXT: TakeOver: Respect pay per view, Amanda and Finn find themselves out on the town... but as always, innocent nights out turn crazy.
1. A Day From Hell

_**October 8th 2015, 12:35am, Hideaway bar...**_

" _One down… now off with it, lass." Finn said with a slight smirk, Amanda setting the pool cue aside and looking at Finn._

" _As you wish." Amanda said, slipping her tank top off over her head but she was still in her skinny jeans and motorcycle boots while Finn was down to just his jeans._

 _It had started out as a way to distract themselves from the chaos, the two had ended up at a bar… one thing led to them drinking, the liquor led to Finn suggesting that the two up the stakes in their usual night out._

 _Crossfire by Stevie Ray Vaughan started to play from the jukebox as Amanda got another shot, the 4 ball shooting right into the side pocket._

" _Your turn now, Balor." Amanda chuckled, Finn pulling his jeans off and kicking them aside which left him in his boxers before he got another shot in._

 _Amanda was out of her boots and socks as she quickly eyed Finn, absentmindedly biting on her lower lip and quickly pretending to focus on the game… but Finn noticed and smirked._

" _Are you lappin' up some cheeky peeks, lassie?" Finn asked, emphasising his accent more than normal in a slight joking manner._

 _"I've tried to... be subtle about it." Amanda manages to say, her voice partially stuck in her throat and her face a light red, Finn resting his right hand on her left hip._

" _You don't make it easy either… to keep my hands off you." Finn whispered as he trailed his fingers up her side… before aiming the cue and pulling back, the 7 striped ball going into the corner pocket._

" _Damn it, you don't play fair!" Amanda said, pouting slightly but removed her jeans anyway._

" _Most times, I don't…" Finn whispered as he eyed Amanda up and down… he knew she was wearing the satin grey green push up bra and hiphugger panties just to get his blood running._

 _Lie To Me by Jonny Lang played on the jukebox as the door opened… and a chuckle distracted them, the two seeing Murphy and Alexa._

" _Well it didn't take too long for you two to get each others clothes off… looks like Lexa was right." Murphy said._

" _l don't see how it's any of your business, just a little dare is all… as for you, maybe you wouldn't be watching me like you are if your bitchy girlfriend wasn't so frigid." Amanda says, Alexa trying to slap her but Amanda caught her wrist and punched her._

 _Murphy and Finn were fighting as well after Finn had stopped Murphy from attacking Amanda… but then Murphy turned and bashed a bottle into Finn's head._

 _Amanda ran at the bar, jumped on its edge and Murphy screamed as he was tackled through a table._

" _Lights out, fucker!" Amanda growled after she stood up when Murphy's eyes closed, Amanda running over and helping Finn up before seeing that he had a few cuts on him._

" _I'm okay, Mandy…" Finn says, handing Amanda's clothes to her as he shoved his own clothes back on. The bartender, an older man named Charlie, was used to this and worse from the two but they didn't normally get to this kind of chaos…_

 **Present time…**

"I told you to not let him take the keys…" Amanda said as she and Finn had spent the last hour and a half running from the bar and finally reached Finn's apartment… in that timeframe, they had crossed paths with a drunken Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady.

When the young diva and NXT Champion had started running, it was because they had heard gunfire and hadn't realised that they weren't the ones being shot at.

"What I want to know is why you two were half naked when we first saw you!" Enzo says loudly after slamming and locking the door.

"Little game of truth or dare led to a not so innocent game of pool… and that led to a bar brawl." Amanda answers as she got Finn to sit down once they were upstairs and patched up the small cuts on his upper back after pulling his shirt up over his head and off, Enzo and Colin trying to sober up downstairs.

"Maybe things did get a bit too crazy, lass… but it was fun. Well until Murphy and Alexa crashed the party." Finn said as he turned and pulled Amanda close to him, the two embracing each other.

"I'm sure those two will be complaining to Hunter about this." Amanda said as they looked at each other, both still a bit drunk.

Eventually letting go, Amanda headed off to get ready to go to sleep… something told her it was gonna be a crazy day tomorrow.


	2. The Morning Light

Aestrid had expected nothing less when she walked across the street and into Finn's apartment that morning, finding a passed out Enzo on the couch and a hungover Colin in the kitchen.

"Mornin, Ace." Colin greeted as he set up the coffee machine.

"Morning. They crashed out upstairs?" Aestrid questioned.

"Both were still a bit drunk so yep." Colin answered.

At the same time, Amanda was just opening her eyes… trying to move wasn't easy as she realised that Finn was holding her to his right side, refusing to let go.

Readjusting the Balor Club shirt she had thrown on last night, she lightly reached her right arm over and rested her hand on his left side. Finn reacted in his sleepy state by turning over to her and hugging her.

The embrace turned into Finn nuzzling his face into the part of Amanda where her neck and right shoulder met, Amanda letting out a small 'hmm' in response and arching her back a bit to get closer to him… the last time she had felt like this was back when she and Cody were first seeing each other.

But she didn't remember Cody or even Randy being a biter…

Amanda let out a sharp yelp and jumped off of the bed, Finn being startled into consciousness by it and sitting up… rubbing his eyes, he saw very thin trails of blood on Amanda's neck and turned horrified.

"Damn it! Mandy, I am so sorry, I swear I didn't mean it!" Finn apologised as he looked for a towel, finally finding one and pressing it to the wound. "You okay?!" He asked, his right hand resting on her upper back to hold her trembling body in place.

"Yeah… I'm okay…" Amanda managed to answer as her heart was still racing from the shock and the door was kicked open, Colin, Enzo and Aestrid running in.

"Uh…" Enzo starts to say, trying to put the words together.

"We'll be downstairs…" Colin said before gently tugging Enzo and Aestrid out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Amanda tilted her head to look up at Finn, him seeing that her face had turned a light scarlet.

"What the fuck, Finn? We've stayed by each others side at night before and you never once bit me!" Amanda whispered, feeling slightly embarrassed as Finn examined the wound in an attempt to avoid answering her. "Hey! We've got to talk about this!" She hissed, lightly swatting his right shoulder and him looking at her.

"And we will… when Enzo's not eavesdropping!" Finn said, the last part directed at Enzo as he knew Enzo had snuck back upstairs.

Enzo grumbled to himself as he walked back downstairs, Aestrid chuckling.

"Come on you, go stuff your gob and give them some moments of peace and privacy." Aestrid said, giving Enzo a light shove towards the direction of the dining room.

"He fucking bit her!" Enzo mutters, putting some pancakes on a plate.

It was a while before Finn and Amanda joined them downstairs, Amanda using a bandage to hide the mark and glancing at Finn.

"She was a fool, you're way too patient with her acting like she does, Finn." Amanda said quietly, Aestrid's head snapping up.

"Who?" Aestrid questioned.

"My ex… Aileen was upset when I asked her to leave Ireland with me. She felt like I was trying to abandon her by signing with the WWE." Finn said after a few seconds.

"Don't know what you've got til it's gone." Enzo said with a mouthful of food, swallowing it.

"And gone a bit…" Aestrid says, trailing off and finding a video on YouTube… she showed it to Finn and Amanda, who both turned red faced when Colin and Enzo saw that it was a video from last night at the bar. "Yeah… YouTube. In other words, a good sizeable section of, if not all of the world can see this."

"Hunter's gonna kill me…" Amanda mutters, Finn resting his left hand on her back. "I swore up and down that my wild child years were over and done with."

"Hey, I swore that I was done skating years ago. Yet I still kick around on boards made by the top designers and manufacturers, if anything more than I did before." Aestrid said.

"If Hunter's gonna kill anyone in a rage, he's gonna target-" Finn starts to say, cut off by the phone ringing.

But when Aestrid answered it, it wasn't Hunter.

"Hey, kid. Everyone okay over there?" Nathan asked.

"Just dealing with something unexpected, that's all." Aestrid answered.

"The video that's gone viral…" Nathan said, Amanda burying her face into Finn's left shoulder to muffle a scream and Finn holding her in his arms.

"Was that Mandy screaming, Ace?!" Sami asked in the background.

"Yes… does Hunter know about the video, has he seen it?" Aestrid questioned.

"Uh…" Sami said nervously. "They're trying to take it off WWE's social media accounts." He says after a few seconds.

"Yeah… we're dead." Amanda manages to say.

"No one's getting murdered, just stay calm." Finn said reassuringly.

"Getting murdered, that's usually my job." Aestrid muttered.

"She's most likely talking about the older ones who watched her grow up, they still see her as that kid." Nathan says.

"Oh.. well I wasn't." Aestrid replied.

Amanda headed into the kitchen, Finn knowing that she was gonna call Hunter… but from the look on her face, the call went straight to voicemail, Finn walking over.

"Yep… he's either in a meeting with the board or he pissed off." Amanda says after setting her phone down… but it rang loudly and she picked it up, seeing it was John and turning anxious now, sending him to voicemail.

" _Hi, it's Mandy. Leave a message but don't yell."_

"Mandy, pick up this damn phone right now! Are you out of your damn mind acting like that?!" John said angrily.

Thinking quickly, Amanda turned the phone back on sleep mode and Aestrid was chuckling nervously.

"Speaking of those on the warpath… anyone feel like calling in sick?" Amanda questioned.

"Forget sick, I'd more likely call in dying!" Aestrid said, a little quiet from the nerves.

"That ain't gonna cut it with them, Tiny." Colin says.

"Yeah…" Amanda muttered, looking up at Finn when his hands rested on her shoulders. "Any ideas?" She asked, trying to stay calm.

"Finding out how it ended up online. We can't hide forever, love." Finn answered, kissing Amanda on her forehead.


	3. Decisions, Decisions

The atmosphere was tense as the five, now ready for the day, were at Full Sail University for the NXT tapings and Aestrid found Hunter.

"I'm not gonna fire them if that's what they're worried about." Hunter said.

"You did a lot of crazy things in your younger years, didn't you?" Aestrid asked.

"Much worse… I started here in the Attitude Era, no one batted an eye at anything we did then." Hunter answered.

"You were young… and so is she, relatively." Aestrid said.

"Yeah… though she's still kiddo in my eyes." Hunter says, Aestrid seeing a picture of a much younger Amanda hanging onto Hunter's back and laughing. "I feel old when I look at that picture." He admits.

"I feel old looking at my real-time ref...lection…" Aestrid said, trailing off and stopping herself as she realised midway through that she hadn't wanted to say that.

"That'll take some time to get used to, are you alright?" Hunter asks, Aestrid nodding.

"Let's go find them." Aestrid said before they left the office, reaching the locker room and Hunter knocking on the door… when it opened, he saw that Amanda had the hood of her Balor Club hoodie over her head and turned confused.

Amanda lowered the hood and pulled the bandage back, revealing the scabbed over bite and Hunter turning startled.

"Are you gonna kill him?" Amanda asked as Finn stood up from the couch.

"No… no, of course not…" Hunter said after shaking off the shock, him and Aestrid leaving. "She really thought I was gonna murder him?" He asked quietly.

"Yep." Aestrid answered.

The door finally closed, Amanda turned back to Finn.

"I really thought you were gonna be killed…" Amanda whispered as they sat down.

"Not a chance in hell… something didn't seem right there though. Ace was there and she sorta just…" Finn said, trying to think of how to word it.

"Distant?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah… like she's seen it before, so many times, enough that it didn't phase her at all." Finn said.

"We've only known her for a little over a year and she hasn't talked much about her life… sometimes I think it's too much for her to talk about." Amanda said as she lightly rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah, like… a week or so ago, I saw her watching a film that was on TV, not sure what film but someone was dying in someone's arms… and she seemed so lost in it, like anything around her was just gone from her mind… and she was absolutely pouring out her heart." Finn said.

"Those kind of things affect us… more than we want to-" Amanda says, cut off by a loud knock at the door that made her sore head ache worse. "No more tequila…" She mutters as he held her in his arms.

"Open this damn door, you gave Murphy a concussion!" Blake yelled.

"Asshole had it coming, now shove off!" Amanda snapped at the man on the other side of the door, Finn standing up and opening it.

"Things got out of control and you know why? Because your friend bashed a whiskey bottle over my head!" Finn said, Blake glaring at the NXT Champion and then at the diva a few feet away.

"We were unwinding, enjoying a night out and then both Alexa and Murphy showed up. And if she forgot to tell you, she swung at me first." Amanda responded after standing up.

"Do you mind me asking what's going on over here?" Blake heard, turned his head and saw Aestrid.

"Have you seen the damn video of them?!" Blake asked.

"Yeah, I have, and I've also taken the time to listen to them about what happened. If you're not gonna do that, on your bike, buster." Aestrid answered, leant against the wall with her arms crossed.

Blake left, Aestrid seeing Amanda setting out some quarters for the vending machine and knowing that she was gonna stock up on coffee.

"That head pounding again?" Aestrid asked.

"I thought sprinting down the blocks and streets last night would've vented the alcohol out…" Amanda answered.

"Not always." Aestrid said with a little chuckle, sitting down in a chair in the corner of the room, near the windows.

Amanda headed off, reaching the machine… and leaning against it for a few seconds, Bayley turning the corner and walking over, resting a hand on Amanda's back.

"You look terrible…" Bayley said.

"Finn and I got piss drunk last night." Amanda admits, Bayley knowing that the Dusty Rhodes classic tag team tournament had taken an emotional toll on Amanda. "None of us ever saw it coming, losing both Dusty and Roddy within weeks of each other… Aestrid once found me curled up in a ball in the ring at the Performance Centre, crying my eyes out."

"I remember that day but it wasn't her who found you first…" Bayley said.

 _ **7/31/15…**_

" _Bayley?"_

 _The brunette turned, seeing Aestrid._

" _Why is Mandy curled up in the ring sobbing?" Aestrid asked, seeing Finn holding Amanda in his arms as she cried into his shoulder._

" _You never want to get that call… she thought of Roddy Piper as an uncle…" Bayley answered quietly, her own eyed reddened._

" _Oh no…" Aestrid said, covering her face… and Bayley heard the quietest whisper from her. "Not again…"_

 _Aestrid walked over but while Amanda had cried herself out, she was still shaking._

" _He should still be here… both of them had been sick but Roddy was in remission for nine years…" Amanda said quietly._

" _Was it a relapse?" Aestrid asked, Amanda letting Finn help her sit up._

" _The vessels in his heart were weak from the chemo… they say that that happens even years after. I just never thought it'd be him, he was always so full of life…" Amanda said, letting Finn brush her tears away and Aestrid resting a hand on Amanda's left shoulder._

" _It always seems like that… sometimes them getting better turns out to be the last of their energy venting before the end." Aestrid said quietly._

" _Yeah… Kitty had told me that Roddy had passed in his sleep, he didn't suffer." Amanda says as she was helped up and out of the ring…_

 **Present time…**

"That call just rips someone's heart out… everything around you just stops." Amanda says in a quiet tone, feeling a hand on her shoulder… but it wasn't Bayley and Amanda turned, seeing Finn and Aestrid.

"I know… I've felt it more times than you'd think." Aestrid said.

"We all have…" Finn says after pulling Amanda into his arms.

"Maybe drinking myself senseless wasn't such a good idea last night." Amanda said.

"Hey, we've all had those kind of nights… but they don't normally end with two people mostly naked in a bar." Bayley says.

"Bayley!" Amanda said, her face red from embarrassment as Bayley laughed quietly.

"Is that video still online?" Finn asked.

"Not on the WWE media pages themselves anymore. But still elsewhere, through re-uploads… they can't be taken down." Bayley answered.

"We're never gonna live this one down." Amanda said after she and Finn look at each other.


	4. Hiding Out Doesn't Always Work

It was about ten minutes until NXT was set to start taping that Bayley and Aestrid saw John's orange Charger pull up into the garage.

"Uh oh… the older, overprotective brother ready to drag his little sister home." Bayley said nervously as Aestrid walked over to John.

"Where is she?!" John asked after getting out and locking the car.

"She's wherever you're not, with how you are right now! Take a moment to sit your ass down and pull your ears open!" Aestrid answered.

John did so, Aestrid sitting down.

"Any idea who originally put the video online?" John asked after a few minutes.

"No one's come forward as being sober enough to remember yet… but eyes are on Alexa with how she's been lately." Aestrid replied.

"No surprise there… she's just… I don't know what her problem is with my sister." John manages to say.

"Me either… some people are just royally twisted." Aestrid replied as she saw Bayley head into the building and finding Amanda and Finn.

"Do we need to run? How mad is he?" Amanda asked.

"Aestrid's calming him down… you sure about this? Going out there?" Bayley questioned.

"No turning back now…" Amanda said after she and Finn stood up, in their ring gear… and for once, Amanda was glad she was facing Liv instead of Alexa.

The three exited the locker room, finding John and Aestrid… Amanda's eyes widened when John stepped forward but she turned confused when John hugged her.

"Ace explained what happened." John said quietly.

"Everything went haywire, John…" Amanda whispered after they let go.

"I know it did… what happened to your neck?" John asked, seeing the bandage.

"Just… an accident caused by early morning drowsiness." Finn explained, hoping John wouldn't kill him. John nodded, letting the two get ready for their matches.

 _ **10 minutes later, Amanda Cena vs Liv Morgan…**_

"Enzo, you're observing closely… worried that your friend and your girl will hurt each other?" Byron Saxton asked.

"There's always that kind of worry… I'm not the only one freaking out-" Enzo says, jumping back as Liv shoved Amanda like she was supposed to… but the back of Amanda's head hit the turnbuckle with a thud and Amanda fell, Finn running over and reaching into the ring, resting his right hand on Amanda's head as Liv crouched down, worried for her friend.

In the backstage area, Aestrid rushed to the doctors.

"Is the ref stopping the match?!" Dr. Amann asked.

"Just did, come on!" Aestrid said before they followed the medics out there along with John.

"My ears won't stop ringing…" All three heard Amanda say through the pain as she tried to sit up, Finn, Enzo and Liv stopping her.

"I swear, it was an accident!" Liv said, panicking as Enzo held her.

"What matters right now is that she's okay, we'll go through what happened later." Aestrid said.

Put onto the backboard with a neck brace on, Amanda flinched as Dr. Amann shined a light into her eyes and let out a muffled cry as she tried to shove the light away.

"It's okay, that'll wear off…" Dr. Amann said reassuringly.

"John?" Amanda asked, seeing her brother's worried blue eyes when he squeezed her right hand.

"We're right here, Mandy, it's okay." John whispered as Amanda was moved onto the stretcher.

Amanda was still looking around, hearing all the disoriented voices with concern in them until another set of blue eyes were visible.

"I screwed up out there… the headlock was too close to the turnbuckle, I wasn't watching around me." Amanda whispered as Finn lightly stroked her hair.

"These things happen, to all of us… you'll be okay." Finn said quietly.

In the distance, Alexa watched through narrowed eyes until Carmella swatted her.

"Knock that off!" Carmella hissed, her New York accent slipping through as Aestrid watched for a second before turning back to Amanda, who's breathing was rapid as she tried to unstrap herself.

"Just for a second…" Finn said, unstrapping Amanda and helping her sit up as Amanda threw up into a bucket as an aftereffect of the head injury and Finn held her hair back.

"Never any less disgusting, even after so long!" Aestrid said, covering her eyes.

Amanda nodded in agreement after she was strapped back down and loaded into the ambulance.

At the ER and with the brace off and her on a different gurney, Amanda felt a cup of water placed into her right hand and slowly sipped it as Finn lightly rubbed her right shoulder.

"I still feel a little out of it…" Amanda said after setting the empty cup down, the concussion at a mild level.

"That was a hell of a blow you took to your head… has the ringing stopped though?" Finn said, asking the last part.

"Yeah… can't wait til we get out of here." Amanda answered as Aestrid and John walked in.

"It's a damn mob scene out there!" Aestrid said after a few seconds.

"Most of the roster's out there, they usually are after a bad blow like that." John says as he walked over, him and Amanda hugging.

"But it's not just them… what else happened?" Amanda asked after they let go, knowing that look in her brother's eyes. "Liara? Where is she, what happened John?" She asked, having been friends with Liara and the gang since last year.

"They were all just out calmly, car riding or strolling… Liara got shot in the street." John said.

"Where is she?! Here, in the OR?! Where?!" Amanda asked, tears forming in her eyes. "She's gone… they couldn't save her." She said quietly, letting the tears fall.

"There were too many shots… two of them severed two of the arteries to her heart, there was no chance." John said, carefully holding Amanda in his arms.

Amanda wasn't able to keep it in anymore and sobbed, Finn resting his hand on her back and lightly rubbing it as Aestrid walked into the waiting room… she had reached the reception desk when she felt a hand on her arm and saw Ty.

"Come here…" Ty said, taking Aestrid into his arms.

"I'm so sorry, guys…" Aestrid whispered.

"Do… they know?" Ty managed to ask after they let go.

"John's telling them… and the others in the group, I was with them when we all found out." Aestrid said, pointing down the hall towards where the others in the gang were.

"She should still be here… we were all in the audience earlier, Liara was so angry when Mandy got hurt, that's why we were out so she could calm down…" Ty said, walking down the hall and into the room.

Amanda was on her right side now, facing away from Ty and unaware of him being there until he rested a hand on her left arm… but while she knew he was there, she didn't look at him, her head hurting too much to move.

"Did they catch who did it?" Amanda asked quietly.

"Shooting was in a drive-by style, no ID seen but the car was recognised… and just found burnt to a crumbling crisp by the state border." Ty answered.

"She and I were talking before the show… me and Finn were gonna meet up with you guys at the bar afterwards…" Amanda said after she tried to sit up, Finn and Ty stopping her.

"I know… we were just out looking around for things, you know how we do it… then the car just came out of nowhere, five claps and made tracks." Ty said.

The group heard a loud bang, followed by "Ow, fuck!" being yelled and saw Val walk in with a dented food tray in her hands.

"And don't come back!" Val shouted out the glass door before slamming it, the others briefly seeing Alexa.

Amanda noticed blood on Alexa's shirt and Finn saw her tense up, resting his hand on Amanda's right arm and lightly rubbing it as he and the others knew that Amanda was boiling with rage.

"Don't… it can't have been her in the shooting." Val said quietly, her throat hurting from her screaming, then having to yell constantly to be heard over the chaos of the shooting scene.

"That's splattered blood on her… she saw who did it." Amanda says as Finn took her into his arms, his right hand running along her left side.


	5. Not The Same

_**Earlier that night…**_

" _Oh hey, there you are." Amanda said as she and Liara hugged for a few seconds and Liara noticed the bandage that Amanda had._

" _What happened there?" Liara asked._

" _Finn bit me." Amanda answered, Liara trying not to laugh._

" _Bit in your sleep… I shouldn't laugh really, I've been there." Liara said as she calmed herself a bit._

" _It's not like him to do that though, he's normally the type to hug me when I'm asleep… I'll explain it over drinks later, how are you and Ty doing?" Amanda says, asking the last part._

" _Quite well. We've decided to go off on a break together in a few weeks, up to the southern area of Canada." Liara said._

" _Awesome… just be careful up there, Canada does get cold. Hey, you're still heading with all of us to Ireland in November, right?" Amanda responded after stretching her arms over her head, Liara hissing slightly when she heard a 'crick' from Amanda's right shoulder._

" _Wouldn't miss it for anything… and fix up that arm!" Liara said._

" _It's just an old injury." Amanda says…_

 **Present time…**

Amanda didn't remember when she fell asleep but when she opened her eyes, it was a little past 4 in the morning… and her head was resting on Finn's right shoulder as he opened his eyes and glanced at hers, which were still reddened from crying.

"It just doesn't feel real… I heard something downstairs, thought that… she had opened the door and walked in like she always did when she couldn't sleep. All she was trying to do was unwind… and they took her life. It's not fair..." Amanda whispered, her voice rough as Finn pulled her closer to him.

"It's never fair… but there's nothing we can do… it's not right that she's gone." Finn said.

"They were so happy, her and Ty… he even mentioned that they were talking about getting married. Life can be damn cruel, Finn." Amanda said with a slight sniffle, burying her face into his shoulder as he saw the bruise on the back of her neck from her hitting the turnbuckle earlier.

Downstairs, Aestrid opened her sleepy eyes… and saw a blurred outline, her eyes widening when she recognised the spirit.

"She can sense that I'm here, in this sense at least… I'm trying not to freak her out." Liara whispers, holding out her see through left hand.

"You just… walked right through the door…" Aestrid manages to say, starting to head towards the stairs.

"Don't… Finn's getting her to settle back into sleep." Liara said quietly.

"She needs the sleep…" Aestrid agreed, sitting back down.

"Especially after the way she fell… and she was right earlier, Alexa saw who it was." Liara said.

"Then why won't she go to the cops?" Aestrid asked.

"She's scared to…" Liara said before disappearing.

It was well into the morning when Aestrid woke up again, seeing Sami stood above her.

"You fell asleep down here…" Sami said after pulling the blanket over her. "They still asleep?" He asked.

"Yeah." Aestrid answered as the door opened again and a hungover JJ walked in. "Where the hell did you crash?" She asked, seeing his disheveled clothes.

"I don't remember… I tried getting that little blonde and red haired woman to talk." JJ answered before revealing a bite on his left arm and bruises on both sides of his ribcage, Sami growling in anger and Aestrid shaking her head.

Upstairs, Amanda was sitting up before she was handed a bottle of cold water and drank it slowly… her head still ached, Finn could see that as he sat down and put his right arm around her shoulders.

But when Amanda looked up after she stopped drinking, her eyes locked with a blurred outline that was familiar before Liara disappeared and Finn resting his hand on Amanda's back.

"She was here… they linger at times." Amanda whispered, Finn knowing who she had seen for a split second. "Look, I'm just… I'm gonna head out for a bit…" She said, changing the subject and trying to stand up but Finn stopped her as he knew that she was going to try to get some answers out of Alexa.

"Trust me, Lexa will open up… she'll have to, the rest of the gang are onto her themselves." Finn said, sitting Amanda back down.

"She saw what happened and I don't know why she's keeping quiet… it bugs the hell out of me that she's just… she won't tell anyone! It's not gonna bring Liara back but that son of a bitch that…" Amanda says, her tone changing midway through and Finn knowing that she was in a mix of grief and anger and pulling her back down to his right side after lying down. "All the gang had at first is each other, they became a family…" She said after looking at him, his right hand gently resting on the back of her bruised neck and lightly massaging it.

The door opened quietly and both looked up, JJ stepping back a bit.

"No answers from her?" Amanda asked.

"Barely… all she gave us was a ZIP code address." JJ replied.

"Could be anywhere…" Amanda responded, cringing slightly and wishing that she hadn't hit the back of the turnbuckle yesterday… Finn and JJ knew that Amanda felt guilty as she thought that Liara would've still been alive had the fall that led to the concussion hadn't happened.

Out in the city, Alexa had just walked out of a coffee shop when she felt herself being grabbed and looked, seeing Val.

"No luck?" Alexa asked in a shaky tone.

"Mandy seems to think that you know more… that you saw who did it!" Val said through gritted teeth.

"I saw it happen, yeah… as for who did it, I didn't…" Alexa said, trailing off.

"She's not one to lie about that…" Val said, letting go. "And you know it!"

"I can't think of it right…" Alexa said quietly.

"No one can… but don't hold out too long. Whoever it was, if they saw you…" Val said, Alexa getting the point and leaving.

Val walked off in the other direction, needing to clear her mind.


	6. Overdrive

_'Blood splatter, all over her shirt… arterial spray meaning that she couldn't have been more than two feet away…'_ Amanda wrote down on a notepad as she tried to put herself at the crime scene in a visual sense… before feeling the notepad being set aside along with the pen and her shoulders being rubbed. "That not gonna distract me for long…" She said, knowing it was Finn.

"You're gonna drive yourself crazy." Finn whispered.

"She was standing close, she had to have seen something besides the bullets." Amanda said, letting out a small grimace because of the tension in her right shoulder.

"Maybe so… but if you're all tense up and then exhausted, you can't go after it, can you?" Finn responded, lightly massaging her shoulders to release the tension a bit.

"You're right about that… damn, I feel like I did after crashing into the announcer's table at the 2014 Royal Rumble." Amanda replied quietly.

Downstairs, Bayley had just walked in when a gun was aimed at her and she screamed and her hands shot up, Ty lowering the weapon.

"Sorry." Both said simultaneously before hearing footsteps and looking at the staircase, seeing Finn and Amanda.

"Hey… wild so far?" Ty asked.

"No… and how the hell did you pick the lock?" Amanda asked, seeing that it was her Beretta 71 in Ty's hands.

"Stole this." Ty answered, revealing one of the lockpicks that Seth kept with him.

Amanda headed upstairs when she heard her phone ring, answering it.

"Hey…" Amanda said, knowing it was Seth and that the shooting was on the news which is how he found out.

"Hey… I'm sorry about Liara." Seth responded after a few seconds.

"No one's found out much yet. It just… it doesn't feel real, it hasn't fully hit yet." Amanda said, unaware that Finn had walked into the room… but when he glanced out the window, he dove over the bed and threw her to the floor, shielding her as bullets slammed into the wall.

"Mandy?!" Seth shouted through the phone.

When the gunfire stopped, Amanda grabbed the phone.

"We're okay…" Amanda manages to say as she and Finn sat up and she instinctively checked him over for wounds and found none.

Outside, Ty had aimed the gun just as the car took off and then ran back in and helped Bayley up to her feet.

"Damn it!" Bayley cursed, bolting upstairs and busting the door open as Ty followed her.

"Are they gone?" Amanda asked as she and Finn stood up.

"They've left skid marks in the road with how they peeled off." Ty answered.

"Fucking stay where you are, one of you call 911!" Seth said once he was on speakerphone, Bayley doing so.

When Dean and Roman had reached the apartment, they saw squad cars outside and looked at each other.

"You don't think that…" Roman started to ask, both feeling that sense of dread as they couldn't see Amanda… until Amanda, dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie, ran out to them, her and Dean hugging tightly.

"What happened, kiddo?" Dean asked after they let go.

"One minute, I was on the phone with Seth… the next, Finn and I were on the floor dodging the gunfire." Amanda answered shakily, Roman turning angry and Dean keeping his hands on Amanda's shoulders.

Another car pulled up and this time, Wayne, Val, JJ and Gin got out and ran over.

"When we get our hands on this cowardly fuck…" Wayne growled, Val nudging him.

"You're not the only ones who want him to pay!" Amanda said through gritted teeth, reaching over and relocating her right shoulder which made the others jump before she walked back in, her and Finn hugging and her tensing up slightly as he placed his hand on her shoulder and felt the unusual warmth of it where the socket was and looked at her. "Ain't no use in telling you I reset it myself, is there?" She asked.

"Not one bit." Finn answered, taking Amanda outside and to the Altima.

 **A while later…**

Seth reached the ER, finding Val.

"Room up the hall… the impact of hitting the floor snapped her shoulder out of its socket." Val said.

"Anything broken, any muscles torn?!" Seth asked.

"Just dislocated it… she's gonna be sore for a few days." Val answered.

"Val… how long do you think these guys have been watching?" Seth asked after they sat down.

"A while… we're starting to think it's someone we did wrong, back in the day, when we'd not long started out. Someone who wasn't too bothered back then, but now that we're getting bigger, wants to make a lesson known." Val replied.

"Damn it!" Seth growled, slamming his fist against the nearby table and Val resting a hand on his back to calm him.

In the room, Amanda looked down at the sling her right arm was in before she felt Finn's right hand rest on her left arm.

"This beats a bullet… you saved my life back there, Finn." Amanda said quietly as she squeezed his hand, Finn looking at her. "Did you see who it was?" She asked.

"No, but I saw something either worse or better… there were two in the car, possibly another in the back." Finn said.

"Whoever they are… they've been watching long enough to know what we look like, our routines… hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they followed up out of the state and we didn't even realise it." Amanda responded as Ty walked in.

"We moved in not too long before your kidney injury… they could've been watching since that night…" Ty starts to explain.

 _ **11/7/14, Florida Hospital…**_

 _Ty and Liara looked up, both turning horrified when they saw a frighteningly pale Amanda being wheeled in on a stretcher and running over as the doctors had no choice but to keep Finn out of the room._

" _I don't care, I need to be with-" Finn yelled._

" _It'll do you justice later." Liara said, Finn not even having time to look at her properly before she'd climbed halfway up the wall, launched herself off of it and grabbed Finn's head, pulling him down to the floor where his head knocked it and rendered him out cold. "That… I hope I never do again." She said as she got up to her feet, rubbing her elbows where they'd scraped along the ground upon landing._

" _What if they need him to give blood to her?!" Ty asked, pulling Finn up and shaking him awake. "What happened?! Konnor pushed her against the steel steps, was it too much force?!" He asked._

" _She was okay when we got to the backstage area… and then she started feeling dizzy. She couldn't even stand…" Finn managed to say as the doctors were working on Amanda._

 _Liara looked down the hallway and back at the two._

" _There's someone watching us…" Liara whispered, the guys noticing._

 _The doctors eventually let Finn into the room and a barely awake Amanda wrapped her small right hand around his larger left one._

" _What's wrong? Is someone out there?" Amanda asked, Finn deciding to distract her._

" _Just rest…" Finn whispered, lightly stroking her hair._

" _They're gonna have to… cut me open, aren't they?" Amanda asked as tears ran down her face._

" _Yeah… it's the left kidney." Finn responded, carefully hugging her so as to not move her too much._

" _I nearly died once before… hell's gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming, Finn." Amanda whispered as they let go._

 _Time had passed before she was out of surgery, the left kidney stitched up and the blood being transfused into her but she was still out cold as Liara and Ty walked in._

" _Are they gone?" Finn asked without looking away from Amanda._

" _Bolted from the ER… how's she holding up? They tell you the extent of the damage?" Ty questioned._

 _Before either could say anything else, Amanda's sleepy hazel eyes opened and she looked around, trying to piece it all together in her groggy state… as she looked up into the hallway, she saw the others guarding the room._

" _What happened, was someone..." Amanda started to ask, trailing off as trying to sit up wasn't easy and she cringed from the spasms of pain shooting through her lower back._

" _You've just had your left kidney surgically repaired, settle down." Ty said as Finn lightly ran his fingers through Amanda's hair._

" _Where the hell are Konnor and Viktor?" Liara asked quietly before seeing the two members of The Ascension and running to them._

" _We're so sorry, it was an accident-" Konnor started to say, Liara trying to calm him._

" _She's okay, they didn't have to remove it… when the hell did you…" Liara said, trailing off when she saw the black eye that Konnor had._

" _John punched me." Konnor answered, leaving it at that…_

 **Present time…**

"Someone we wronged a long time ago… some things aren't easy to let go." Ty said after a few minutes.

"And they took her life over it and nearly took ours…" Amanda replied as she sat up a bit.

"We'll have to be careful which places we hide at… can you think of anywhere?" Ty questioned.

"My childhood home… but I don't want to put my parents in danger." Amanda answered as John ran in and the two hugged, Amanda only using her left arm.

"No, I know where… Val's childhood home has sat abandoned since her family left." Ty said after a few moments, as John and Amanda let go.

"It's just outside the city limits, right?" John asked.

"Little bit further into the countryside, but close enough… and far enough that no one else would be at risk if there ended up being another shooting." Ty answered.

"Out of the area…" Amanda said quietly.

After grabbing what they needed, everyone reached the house… and Val looked up, seeing Karl and Luke before looking at Finn.

"I called them from the phone in the ER." Finn admitted.

"And I'm glad he did." Karl said, loading a shotgun.

"Where in the hell did you find Wi-Fi routers in this area?" Ty asked.

"Just outside the area, actually… and…" Luke said, Val noticing that the furniture had been cleaned up and dusted off.

"Almost like I never left…" Val said quietly, looking around the living room.

"Home ain't always left behind." Karl replied, Val turning the Tv on and settling on one of the news stations.


End file.
